u/olddeadgrass

I've been at this restaurant for 4 years. Indiana for legal context. For those 4 years, we had very basic dishes. Molcajetes for dips and sides, trays for nachos, and baskets lined with paper for other dishes/chips. All silverware was plastic, so no rolling silverware or washing it.

We have never had a dishwasher person. As sidework, servers wash the molcajetes, cups, glassware, trays and baskets. It's been fine, the hardest thing to wash was the molcajetes. Never took too long and you could fit 3 rows of baskets in one wash.

This week, the company decided to invest in actual plates for entrees and silverware. So now for the plates you have to spend time rinsing them off. Silverware you have to spray off and wash as well, although we aren't rolling them. Silverware just sits in a cup on the server station (kinda gross imo but whatever).

Dishes take 2x as long now. You can't fit as many plates in one wash. They also didn't give us enough plates or silverware, so we have to wash them more often during dinner rush. This is also on top of our other basic side work (ice, bussing tables, resetting tables, sweeping, cleaning the bathrooms, etc). Our sink also doesn't have a sprayer.

I would say that side work makes up 50% of our time at work at this point. I thought the rule was 20%, but it's also Indiana so I doubt I have a case. I don't mind doing sidework, and I didn't even really mind the dishes we had before. Now it just kinda seems excessive because we don't have a busser either.

Any advice would be appreciated! I've heard similar things from my co-workers finding it excessive so it's not just me.

We take I-70 everyday to get to work from the East side. They shut down the I-70 West St. Louis/Louisville exit like two months ago but we've never seen actual work being done on it. Can't find anything online either. Everyone is funneled through Exit 83A to get to Michigan st and it's making traffic worse than usual.

Anyone have updates on this construction?

I kept seeing those tiktok videos of people meowing in the walk-in when they're stressed out at work. I had a difficult table and went into the walk-in to try the meowing thing. ​

My mistake was turning my back to the door while continuing to just go, "Meow meow meow..." ​

I turn around and my GM is standing there staring at me with the inventory clipboard, and he just goes, "What are you doing..?" ​

I have no idea how long he was standing there. The fans are really loud and I didn't hear the door open. 😭

I would say the thing I struggle with most in writing is being able to build enticing and deep characters. What method do you use for writing characters, especially main characters?

Is there a good questionnaire I could use? Or should I use some other method?

We moved into a rental house in September. Our rent is $1200/mo and we're also responsible for the electric bill on top of that. We thought the electric bill would be maximum $250/mo for a 1200 sq. ft. house (no basement, single floor). Our bill kept climbing higher as it got colder, so I put us on the budget plan because we can't really afford more than than the $250, and it was already getting higher than that.

Somehow we now owe $1800 in total because you have to pay back the "leftover" by the end of the year. There is NO way we're going to be able to do that. And mind you, our house was only 65-69⁰ all winter long. Nothing crazy. I don't understand how the bill got so high!

We are having the furnace checked out, but our rental company doesn't even have a phone number, just an email. I don't think they would be willing to help with the electric bill, even if it was caused by a malfunctioning furnace.

Is there any assistance we can look into? Can we negotiate with AES?

People seem to just have iced coffee ready to go every morning but I don't get it!!! If I pour my hot coffee over ice, it just melts the ice and gets watered down. I fear I'm missing something.